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Monday, 8 April 2013

Airbrushed Tau: Riptide and Broadside WIP

The Tau Third Sphere Expansion is coming along well. The greater good is bolstered today by two new Broadside suit configurations and the XV104 Riptide suit.

Bless the Easter Hols hey.. (cue teacher holiday bashing lols)

Got the base coat down on both Broadsides and the Riptide that I actually have.. still awaiting Wayland to get stock in and ship those 'pre-orders'..then I can add 4 more Broadsides and toy with the idea of keeping or exchanging the other 2 Riptides I have on order haha.

The Riptide is a lovely model, the more I look at it, the more I work on it...the more I love it. Simple really.
Whilst it may not be as points efficient as the Crisis teams, it does at least offer a viable option to the Tau commander - let me say that again, Crisis are still king of Elites in the new Tau book, but this bad boy can at least be used.

It is not by any means Shiva the Destroyer of Worlds - as the Interwebz would have had us believe before the book hit - heck, I'm not sure it even stands up to a shoal of Piranhas, but it definitely can be used.

I also see some really fun Allied shenanigans with 3 Ritpides and a
"wannabe XV104" - or the Dreadknight as they are knownas in some cicles.

Anyway, the Brothers of Destruction (not Undertaker and Kane :) ) the new Broadies are so good. Beautiful models, great barrel chested behemoths the size of dreadnoughts.
Simply wonderful.

I've gone for the High Yield Missile Pods, not only because they sound cool as fuck - which they do, but also because I think it is a better option.
Combine Interceptor for 5 points and attach your Puretide wielding Commander for some tank hunting action and they will be able to bring down a lot of stuff.. sure give them Skyfire too if you are feeling really generous, but with Twin Linked systems and 12 shots per unit of 3, you can get some reasonable hits on Snap Fire and save yourself 60 points!

Oh and the family shot here...

The FW and Crisis only comapre decently to the Broadside in height, not mass - really only because I avoid broken ankles on all Crisis suits by hovering them on flying stands!

Left to Right: Converted "Incredible Bulk" Crisis Commander, FW XV-something or other Suit, Broadside and Big Daddy. The scale of this guy truly is epic.

Not that I am bored or anything, but I can't wait to see Wraith Constructs like this in the Eldar codex.. :) The Riptide sets a precedent only preceded by its predecessor the Dreadknight, and I for one cannot wait to see an elegant, leggy space elf striding across the battlefield!

Anyway, time to get tidied up for today, got a game with Bringer of Death tonight - Tau Vs Demons. Should be messy! The list?.......Nah! That's an experimental secret for now lol!

Hey Adam.. I've only had two games with the Tau now.. Vs chaos/chaos demons and vs Necrons. I tried the burst vs C/cd and was underwhelmed.. I tried the ion vs crons and far prefer it. SMS I use because they do it require LOS and ignore cover, with ripple fire 8 shots like that is very useful. It provides pretty good utility as the ion accelerator gives some seriously long range high strength power to the Tau, and can be used for hordes too via Nova charge, whilst the SMS with ripple can do the same.. It's about having options for me... That's what I think the Riptide gives...flexibility.. True tau warfare style!

TL fusion is very good, especially with marker light support and ripple fire...no question that that is very good indeed..I've just found that with the heavy use of Broadsides and Puretide Commander I simply don't need it.. Tank hunting s7 with 12 shots twin linked is better for me than 2 s8 ap1 ...however, depending on what army you are taking it may be very useful taking TL fusion. I can certainly see the benefit of Ion and Fusion Ripple Fire vs small elite units such as termies, wraiths, paladins etc.. But for those, Nova charge Ion is just as good..

Good point about Nova'ing the SMS.So are you planning to glance everything to death with missiles or are you taking some fusion on Battlesuits too?But I agree that long range S7 missiles just seem so much more versatile.I guess I'm just in the habit of having to Melta AV13+.

The Nova ion large blast is s9 ap2. I am most used to taking on av13 in Necron form. Open topped necron form. So the large blast is very useful, especially when supported through markerlights for that.. However, yes...s7 is very good vs av13 for glance stripping hull points. When you combine the Puretide with tank hunters to,a broadside high yield missile unit, the tank hunters is more effective at killing av13 than s8. So using huge volumes of s7 is very decent... For example, in the tau list I am playtsting I have 63 s7 shots...now this can strip av13, nuke transports, kill mcs and kill hordes too (backed up by 102 S5 shots..not including rapid fire or anything)

Could easily get more S8 in and we are at such an early stage..playtesting will reveal if it is needed.. Land raiders could be a pain..but the honest answers to that is... Who truly takes them to competitive tournaments? Not that many.. The current meta certainly doesn't see them often enough to warrant it...then I guess the riptide has S9 .. Or could smash as a mc... I have a Onager Gauntlet too for 5 point Lols :)

I'd like to see more fusion, especially with extended range, just not sure where to bring it...